Price increase was the only way to go: Litro Gas Chairman

It will take more than a month for the domestic LP Gas shortage to end and supplies to return to normal, newly appointed Litro Gas Chairman Vijitha Herath told the Sunday Times.

“We are trying our best to stabilise the situation, and gradually increase our production, but it will take between 1 to 1 1/2 months for this to end,” he said.

The dollar crisis has hit gas supplies hard, Mr Herath claimed. The company’s capacity is 100,000 cylinders per day, but that has been drastically reduced, he acknowledged, though he did not say by how much.

A stock of 3,600 metric tonnes of gas from a ship that arrived this week is currently being unloaded, and gas is still being dispatched from Litro Gas’s terminal at Muthurajawela.

Litro’s priority right now are the 28% of consumers who only use LP gas for cooking, the majority of whom are in urban areas, Mr Herath stated. Meanwhile, gas is also being distributed to key sectors such as industries and hotels.

On Tuesday ( 26), the company hiked gas prices by a record amount, with the price of a 12.5kg cylinder being increased by Rs 2,185 to Rs 4,860. The price of a 5kg cylinder went up by Rs 874 to Rs 1,945 while a 2.3kg cylinder went up by Rs 404 to Rs 910.

The price increase was the only way to go, and it will help to stabilise the supply situation going forward, insisted Mr Herath. “There was simply no alternative. We could not proceed as things were. We are managing the situation carefully now and working to increase production.”

Meanwhile, long queues for gas were reported from many areas of the country even yesterday, with consumers waiting in queues for hours hoping that they will be able to purchase gas.